Primary challenger to Pat Roberts found to have some curious Facebook postings; Update: Wolf statement added

posted at 11:01 am on February 23, 2014 by Jazz Shaw

In the GOP Senate primary in Kansas, Pat Roberts has drawn a challenge from Dr. Milton Wolf, a physician and distant cousin of President Obama. The race has drawn more attention than it otherwise might ever since it was alleged that Senator Roberts wasn’t actually keeping a home in the state he serves. All of this politico action has given a boost to Dr. Wolf, but has also drawn the predictable scrutiny and oppo research that any viable candidate faces.

This weekend the digging turned up some rather curious images on Wolf’s previous Facebook page – now replaced with a Senate candidacy site – and they are raising questions of ethics, or at least a rather questionable sense of humor.

U.S. Senate candidate Milton Wolf posted a collection of gruesome X-ray images of gunshot fatalities and medical injuries to his Facebook page and participated in online commentary layered with macabre jokes and descriptions of carnage.

Wolf, a Johnson County radiologist anchoring a campaign for the Republican nomination with calls for federal heath care reform, said in an interview the medical images were legally uploaded to public social media sites and other online venues for educational purposes. They also served, he said, to demonstrate evil lurking in the world.

A doctor publishing medical material for educational purposes shouldn’t raise any eyebrows, but it appears that the real questions arose concerning some of his entries in the comments section.

Wolf and others viewing these Facebook postings relentlessly poked fun at the dead or wounded. The gunshot victim, Wolf joked online, wasn’t going to complain about the awkward positioning of his head for an X-ray. In a separate Facebook comment, Wolf wrote that an X-ray of a man decapitated by gunfire resembled a wounded alien in a “Terminator” film and that the image offered evidence people “find beauty in different things.”

It doesn’t sound like anything actionable, but it paints the candidate in a pretty poor light. Further, circling back to the question of publishing such material, even if the identity of the victims was removed, you have to wonder how many people showed up with those types of wounds in the same period. It probably wasn’t too difficult to figure out who they were, so even if it’s not a technical violation of HIPAA restrictions it certainly looks like poor judgement.

Yet another lesson for those looking to launch a career in politics and those who support them. Vetting is critical, and doing a thorough check of the aspiring candidate’s social media sites should be a no-brainer. Roberts has seen his disapproval numbers climbing over the past year, though he still holds a comfortable lead over both Wolf in the August primary and his Democrat challenger in the general election. But even if Roberts turns out to be seriously vulnerable, any further discoveries such as this may wind up showing that Dr. Wolf simply wasn’t ready for prime time.

My training as a diagnostic radiologist included the critical component of studying medical images published both in textbooks and online. I have myself authored and published educational material that teaches medical imaging to medical students and doctors. Of the thousands of medical images I have published I have taken care to maintain patient privacy.

Several years ago I made some comments about these images that were insensitive to the seriousness of what the images revealed. Soon thereafter, I removed those images and comments, again several years ago. For them to be published in a much more public context now, by a political adversary who would rather declare war on doctors than answer serious questions that Kansans have, is truly sad. However, my mistakes are my own and I take full responsibility for them.

I have said throughout this campaign and long before it began that I bear the scars of taking the Oath to my patients. When I was 15 years old, I stood at my father’s bedside, himself a rural doctor, and watched him take his last breath. It was at that moment that I knew I would take his torch and dedicate my life to serving patients in need. I’m reminded just how extraordinarily difficult the burden is when I have failed to live up to his example.

It is an incredible honor and an enormous burden to work shoulder-to-shoulder with dedicated people who every day run towards the screaming instead of away. The cumulative effect of day after day, year after year, witnessing so much human suffering, so much tragedy, takes its toll. I’ve seen the burdens of practicing medicine tear apart families and drive good people to vice and as great as the honor is to serve, I would still not wish the burdens of it upon anyone. To those I have offended, I am truly sorry and I ask for your forgiveness.

And now, years later, because I have declared that I am willing to stand up for my country, Senator Pat Roberts wants to attack me as a doctor rather than giving Kansans a reason to vote for him. It’s sad. Pat Roberts has not been able to identify a single issue on which he thinks I am wrong and so he’s doing things the Washington way: character assassination. Kansans should know that I will not be intimidated by their bullying. I did not back down when Barack Obama’s IRS audited me and I will not back down from the desperate attacks of a 47-year Washington insider either.

Okay, by NRSC, I really mean the NRSC’s Brad Dayspring. I follow him, and I like his tweets. But he’s been hammering this all day and it’s a dreadful, dreadful mistake. I accept his claim that he’s just interested in making sure the seat goes GOP. But when the NRSC gets out and attacks a Tea Party challenger — and that, make no mistake, is what’s going on — it poisons the well. There’s basically no trust for the GOP establishment among the base. If they stay home in 2014 like they did in 2012 because they feel betrayed by the establishment, what should be a wave election won’t be.

I get that, too, especially on stuff like this. The issue of TARP and Bevin’s position in Kentucky is a real issue of trustworthiness; this Wolf thing isn’t even really germane to policy or politics, and it’s apparently pretty old on top of it. The NRSC should give this kind of thing a wide berth.

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You know, I’m relishing the nasty, whiny tone of the “Tru-Con” and “Teahadist” remarks, the incessant petty attacks and so on.

The Less-Progressive Party is doing a great job at convincing me they not only don’t really know what it is to be conservative, but that they actively despise any and all of conservatism’s adherants.

I also note that along with the mental quirk of Being-Progressive-But-Less-So, magical thinking is exhibited; to wit

We are held to a higher standard and we have no choice but to meet that standard

I recall how well the Less-Progressive Party met that standard with the most squeaky clean/no baggage candidate EVAH in 2012, and how well “meeting that standard” worked in the face of 47%, Binders of Women, Cancer-Bringer and so on.

Why the LPP believes that only totally inoffensive candidates who are properly “vetted” (that is; approved by the donor class and with no taint of any belief to the right of LP) will win all elections and that somehow the R next to those properly vetted names (the R! the R! All hail the power of the R!!) makes everything good- because its OUR TEAM who wins.

Teahadists, we will let you sit in the nose-bleed section, but make sure you cheer for Our Team!

Because otherwise, the MPPs rather than the LPPs will win. And they wear totally different uniforms than us.

So who’s the purity police now? Those of us who want the constitution followed, or those who think Milton Wolf is disqualifying himself for some relatively mild medical gallows humor? We all seek purity — just different kinds and for different reasons.

Wolf would have my vote if I lived in KS.His positions are conservative and jazz is doing his typical concern trolling. And as an addendum I am a resident at a pretty large hospital in NV, and I can say Dr. Wolf’s humor is mild in comparison to some of the humor I’ve heard from my attending physicians. Really mild.

But before I can be convinced as to who to cast my vote for I shall await to hear Matt Lewis take on this… /

Until the conservative movement learns to behave like adults and recruit candidates who are both conservative and not offensive to voters, yes, that’s right.

Since this cockamamie idea of victory through insurgent primary candidates began, something like ten or fifteen Senate races over the past four years have been contested. By my count, only two of those attempts bore fruit – Ted Cruz and Rand Paul. The others have either handed the seat to the Democrats outright, or produced a candidate who has committed some sort of unforgivable betrayal, which in this day and age could very well mean that they haven’t supported impeaching the president.

KingGold on February 23, 2014 at 11:39 AM

Wrong on almost every count.

In 2010 “Fox News projects that Republicans will see a net gain of about 65 seats in the House. In races from Florida to Virginia to Indiana to Texas, voters were sending a rebuke to the party in power by electing Republicans over Democratic incumbents. Seniority did not seem to matter. Longtime representatives were falling just as hard as freshmen, succumbing to campaigns — many of them backed by the Tea Party movement — that tied them to unpopular federal policies and proposals.”

The 2010 election was was wave election across the board for the GOP above and beyond the House of Representatives.

Palin picks in 2012:
Candidates Endorsed: 14
Elections Held: 14*
Candidates Elected: 8
2012 Endorsements Success Rate: 57.14% of endorsed candidates in which an election has been held. In cases involving a runoff, we are counting the runoff as the election having been held for purposes of calculating the success rate of Gov. Palin’s endorsements. Six out of the eight wins were endorsed during the primary season and went on to win the general election. The success rate on this subset is 75%.

I don’t care. I’m just sick of “our” guys being held to a different standard. You guys don’t give a flip about Sen. Roberts being a creature of D.C. but are all jacked out of shape by some inside baseball crap from a doctor. I don’t know a lot about Facebook but I think you have to join and be “friended” to go to someones site. I know that I can’t go on people’s Facebook sites.

Cindy Munford on February 23, 2014 at 11:54 AM

Cindy, I’m a capella. I just don’t think Jazz should get crucified for being a messenger and I suspect macabre humor by a health care provider isn’t a winner in the voting booth. I would like to see Obamacare overturned. The only way to do that is gain the Senate in2014 and the WH in 2016, which also will be a very vulnerable year for the Senate Republicans. If I have to put up with objectionable Republicans to get that done, so be it.

Since this cockamamie idea of victory through insurgent primary candidates began, something like ten or fifteen Senate races over the past four years have been contested. By my count, only two of those attempts bore fruit – Ted Cruz and Rand Paul. The others have either handed the seat to the Democrats outright, or produced a candidate who has committed some sort of unforgivable betrayal, which in this day and age could very well mean that they haven’t supported impeaching the president.
KingGold on February 23, 2014 at 11:39 AM

Jeb Bush would be proud of your common core math skills. Did you forget Mike Lee and a few others? Or that once a conservative took down the preferred GOPe contender the GOPe immediately closed ranks behind the dem or some other shenangians? It wasn’t the conservative candidate that lost the elections, it was the GOPe that denied it to anyone not of their own. Otherwise explain Miller vs Murkowski. Plus any of them that lost by a couple of percent doesn’t prove in the least that they were unfit for office. You may have a point when it’s by 10 or 15% but not when the margin is really small.

On the other hand Ronald Reagan would be unelectable by your quisling lights yet he blew out the opposition by unprecendented numbers yet pappy bush got beat by a slick that didn’t even break 50%. Don’t blame Perot for getting 19% because Illinois RINO John Anderson turned indy took 7% from Reagan. Even if Anderson doubled his tally, Reagan still would have won convincingly. On the other hand Perot as did Reagan took votes from the democrats so that only shows how flawed Bush and Dole were. The conservative message is one that appeals to hard working americans, even if they are traditional democrats.

Can’t wait for the GOPe to die and all their enablers banished to the left wilderness for their wickedness.

Newsflash for anyone who’s naive enough to think otherwise…if doctors and nurses wouldn’t be able to consider any patient, or part thereof a “brick” or some such inanimate object, they could NEVER do their job.

Like in the lawyers’ world medical jokes and morbid fascination and such are de rigeur.

This is a non-item, except for the leftist rats and the ‘busy’ RINOs, who fail to report the truly significant…like the ruin of the land and her children.

Cindy, I’m a capella. I just don’t think Jazz should get crucified for being a messenger and I suspect macabre humor by a health care provider isn’t a winner in the voting booth. I would like to see Obamacare overturned. The only way to do that is gain the Senate in2014 and the WH in 2016, which also will be a very vulnerable year for the Senate Republicans. If I have to put up with objectionable Republicans to get that done, so be it.

butch on February 23, 2014 at 12:22 PM

Jeebus, Butch! That’s your first mistake! NEVER depend on politicians to fix what politicians broke!

So who’s the purity police now? Those of us who want the constitution followed, or those who think Milton Wolf is disqualifying himself for some relatively mild medical gallows humor? We all seek purity — just different kinds and for different reasons.

Speaking of gallows humor, here’s a tip. Avoid the Dude brothers. They send many to the ER. “What happened to your face?” Patient: ” The big Dude grabbed me and the short ugly Dude hit me!”
Beware the Dudes.

Another newsflash – HIPAA is soooo yesterday, if it ever was. With the obama’care’ event of demanded e-medical-records any fool’s brains, lungs and etc. will be on display, for the world to see, access, at any time, with names and SS#s and all.

The only way you escape this is if you refuse to submit.

I typed for you often how not to submit. Otherwise this thread will be a ant in a global Qomolangma/Mt. Everest.

Why did you change your perfectly good name? I’m old, I’ll never remember!!! I’m not really annoyed with Jazz, I think that we do need to know these things so we can react but he does have a history of expecting us to be happy with what we have in the Republican party. AND I AM NOT!! King Gold is a different story, he always loves moderates and we need reformers.

A person’s judgment and ethics are valid concerns when deciding whom to vote for in the primary. I, for one, am concerned that he was posting x-rays and joking about them. Certainly in poor taste. That said, I am furious that Pat Roberts does not own personal home in Kansas but I don’t know who I will support in the primary.

Cindy, I’m a capella. I just don’t think Jazz should get crucified for being a messenger and I suspect macabre humor by a health care provider isn’t a winner in the voting booth. I would like to see Obamacare overturned. The only way to do that is gain the Senate in2014 and the WH in 2016, which also will be a very vulnerable year for the Senate Republicans. If I have to put up with objectionable Republicans to get that done, so be it.

butch on February 23, 2014 at 12:22 PM

It’s a slow news week.

Get involved in the primaries and try to get a conservative candidate for the general election. Then, no matter the outcome of the primary, vote against the dems/libs. There is no need to demonize any candidate running to against a lib.

Mitt wasn’t my guy going in, I was underwhelmed in general, but as election day got closer he seemed to be exactly the man for the job. A specific set of skills for the time but that couldn’t beat out free stuff for the lazy and I’m starting to wonder if it ever will.

Mitt wasn’t my guy going in, I was underwhelmed in general, but as election day got closer he seemed to be exactly the man for the job. A specific set of skills for the time but that couldn’t beat out free stuff for the lazy and I’m starting to wonder if it ever will.

Cindy Munford on February 23, 2014 at 12:32 PM

I’m telling ya, Cindy, his history with Jon Gruber in Mass-uh-chew-sits hurt him. A lot. But the politicians don’t give a rip as long as those with power get to keep it.

This post reminds me of the reporting about the “pornography” that was found on a “website” of the 9th circuit chief justice, Alex Kozinski. It was claimed that he had pornographic files, including beastiality and scatological porn. The LA Slimes reported:

“a video of a half-dressed man cavorting with a sexually aroused farm animal.”

LOL. “cavorting” … okay. That was a video of some idiot who got out of a car to take a p!ss in a field and ended up being chased (with his pants down) by a bull. The “scatological” porn was a photo of some dipsh!t who had shat himself while bungee jumping and was hanging at the end of the bungee cord in all his humiliatingly funny glory.

I think we need more information. Is this unusual behavior for doctors. How about for senators? In my opinion, the one who impacts my life better have a clue about my life and does Sen. Roberts qualify?

I think we need more information. Is this unusual behavior for doctors. How about for senators? In my opinion, the one who impacts my life better have a clue about my life and does Sen. Roberts qualify?

Cindy Munford on February 23, 2014 at 12:35 PM

Here’s your “more information,” Cindy. We’re not all blackmail dangers, but who among us doesn’t have some sort of “skeletons” in our closet if this is as low as the bar is set for skeletons? It is not at all unusual behavior for doctors. I’ve never been a doctor, but I was a Medical Office Administration student not so long ago, and I spent plenty of time around ER doctors, enough to know that they can be pretty rough people when they think no one is looking.

If we accomplish nothing else, they should live in fear for their jobs every day of their lives.

Cindy Munford on February 23, 2014 at 12:37 PM

They don’t. And they won’t. For every Ted Cruz or Milton Wolf we elect, we’ll get 10 Marco Rubios or Eric Cantors. That’s why we need to start looking beyond the voting booth for more immediate solutions.

A poll out Friday from Democratic pollster Public Policy Polling found that while Kansans were still largely unfamiliar with Wolf, there was a fair amount of dissatisfaction with Roberts on which he could capitalize if he can raise his profile.

Roberts beats Wolf handily in a head-to-head match up. Forty-nine percent of Republican primary voters say they would choose the senator, while over 23 percent would choose Wolf. But in a match up with a generic “more conservative” candidate, the race is much closer: Roberts leads 43 percent to 39 percent. Since Wolf still remains widely unknown — 76 percent of Republicans say they’re “not sure” what they think of him — and there is the potential for the numbers to move in his favor as more voters get to know him.

Why did you change your perfectly good name? I’m old, I’ll never remember!!! I’m not really annoyed with Jazz, I think that we do need to know these things so we can react but he does have a history of expecting us to be happy with what we have in the Republican party. AND I AM NOT!! King Gold is a different story, he always loves moderates and we need reformers.

Cindy Munford on February 23, 2014 at 12:28 PM

I had some work done on my hard drive and they erased whatever black magic hooked me up to Hot Gas. Salem wouldn’t give me a new password. I tried getting back in under the old name, but, it wouldn’t feed into the magic machine.

Since this cockamamie idea of victory through insurgent primary candidates began, something like ten or fifteen Senate races over the past four years have been contested. By my count, only two of those attempts bore fruit – Ted Cruz and Rand Paul.

I had some work done on my hard drive and they erased whatever black magic hooked me up to Hot Gas. Salem wouldn’t give me a new password. I tried getting back in under the old name, but, it wouldn’t feed into the magic machine.

And the spectacle of Lugar of IN now supporting the D-Nunn in Georgia, the guy who lost to Lee in UT is still foaming at his old mouth, the creep, Murkowski, the cow, on full display, almost daily, the Congress, Cruz exposing the cockroaches, almost daily.

Nice company for “one of the largest right-of-center blogs on the Internet” to be amongst. Wouldn’t you agree Jazz?
Flora Duh on February 23, 2014 at 12:47 PM

Exactly. I think it all started going downhill ever since Ed tried to foist T’Paw on us back early 2011. A statist moderate as the GOPe answer to Oboobie. What a laugh.

If it weren’t for the commenters at hot gas, I’d left a long time ago but for the fact that it’s the “top conservative” site in spite of the current editors. Losing the crew from the green room doesn’t help either like Dyer, Madison Conservative, doc zero etc.

Here is the ENT Altercation Evaluation Form:
1) How many beers do you think you had? Answer: Two, one in each hand.
2) What member of the Dude Family messed you up so bad? Answer: ” I told you that the big dude Grabbed me and the short ugly dude hit me!”
3) Was your old lady involved in any way? Answer: “Yeah, the short ugly Dude was messin’ with her.”
4) Was the term mother f***** used at anytime during the altercation? Answer: Yeah, I said what are you doing mother f***** and that’s when it happened.
The use of the term mother f***** is usually the precipitating event.

Or that once a conservative took down the preferred GOPe contender the GOPe immediately closed ranks behind the dem or some other shenangians? It wasn’t the conservative candidate that lost the elections, it was the GOPe that denied it to anyone not of their own.

I have said this since 2010. Not a single GOP primary loser EVER backed the winner in the primary. That’s the reason that they are still in the minority in the Senate. Not. A. Single. One.

I have said this since 2010. Not a single GOP primary loser EVER backed the winner in the primary. That’s the reason that they are still in the minority in the Senate. Not. A. Single. One.

Sarge

AFSarge on February 23, 2014 at 1:10 PM

+ 200 million sane Americans. Shine the light on the truth and knock the cockroaches out. Murkowski couldn’t let go of her power either. They all love their cushiony lives more than those they’re supposed to serve. They loathe the people who sustain their rich styles.

Did I just read a hit piece? Expect a lot of these as the 2014 election gets closer.

BoxHead1 on February 23, 2014 at 1:32 PM

Hopefully our candidates hold the line and stay strong and don’t start trying to apologize for every made up BS story that the scumbag leftist come up with. That is one of the very few things that I like about Chris Christie.

You are an imbecile. If you notice the first post on this thread was king gold concern trolling about conservatives. It matches the personality of ggumpypokeme perfectly.

Raquel Pinkbullet on February 23, 2014 at 1:30 PM

Raquel, KG and I have been doing this, here, together, both in tandem and in opposition to one another, for years. Going back at least as far as COD, and maybe even further. His concern, as is my concern, is moving the ball down the field on behalf of the Right, in spite of the jackassery of the Truer Than Thou Conservatives.

The idea that he is a sockpuppeting troll is ludicrous. And if you had been around here longer, or paid better attention, you’d know that…

If it weren’t for the commenters at hot gas, I’d left a long time ago but for the fact that it’s the “top conservative” site in spite of the current editors. Losing the crew from the green room doesn’t help either like Dyer, Madison Conservative, doc zero etc.

AH_C on February 23, 2014 at 1:01 PM

Where’s Doc posting now?

I’ll remind you that that little escapade cost the GOP a Senate seat from freakin’ Indiana, the heart of the Midwest right wing.

I have no problem with the TEA partiers playing hard. They should. Helps move the party to the Right. But for God’s sake, don’t play to lose…

JohnGalt23 on February 23, 2014 at 1:10 PM

And I’ll remind you that the petulant little spoiled brat Lugar undermined Mourdock every chance he got. Lugar lost a primary fairly, but felt entitled to the seat. Like so many other politicians, he feels more camaraderie with his big government brothers in DC than the people he was supposed to represent in Indiana.

As for this post, it’s no surprise Hot Air’s resident leftist is trying to gum up the works on a new conservative candidate. Let’s not forget that they tried (and will try again) to make Aqua Buddha a big deal in Rand Paul’s campaign and an automatic disqualifier.

Raquel, KG and I have been doing this, here, together, both in tandem and in opposition to one another, for years. Going back at least as far as COD, and maybe even further. His concern, as is my concern, is moving the ball down the field on behalf of the Right, in spite of the jackassery of the Truer Than Thou Conservatives.

The idea that he is a sockpuppeting troll is ludicrous. And if you had been around here longer, or paid better attention, you’d know that…

JohnGalt23 on February 23, 2014 at 2:03 PM

Since you spend the majority of your time on this site bashing conservatives, I’m not sure why your endorsement would count for anything.